Chic Made Simple – Review & Giveaway!

When I first received the Chic Made Simple cookbook, I was wowed. It’s filled with beautiful pictures, impeccable food styling, and lots of delicious recipes that are truly, made simple. Esther Deutsch’s new cookbook promises fresh, fast and fabulous kosher cuisine, and it delivers. With appetizers & sides, soups, salads, poultry, meat, fish, dairy and desserts, the cookbook lacks for nothing. Chef’s are fond of saying “We eat with our eyes first”, and no one knows that better than Esther. Her talent for plating and food styling are on full display page after page. As a wannabe food stylist (at least for my blog) this book has taught me a lot.

While styling is important, the food also has to speak for itself. The recipes in Chic are simple enough for the novice cook, yet sophisticated enough for the more experienced chef. Some of my favorite dishes include quinoa patties, pulled meat wontons, roasted chestnut pumpkin soup, sundried tomato basil capons, creole veal burgers, 60-second cajun salmon, fruit tartare, and many more.

All that being said, I do have a few small qualms about this book. As the food editor of Ami magazine, many, of the recipes appeared in the magazine at some point (46 of the recipes in the book have never been published). While it mostly reads like a cookbook, there is some confusion where the pictures don’t entirely relate to the recipe, and some magazine spreads that were stuck in the book, disrupting the flow. The pictures, having been photographed by a few photographers, don’t offer the same style, and some are so highly manipulated, they don’t look realistic. As a graphic designer, I find this very frustrating, but to the untrained eye, most people will not be disturbed by it.

Bottom line: Chic Made Simple does in fact offer chic recipes that are fairly easy. Some recipes use highly processed ingredients, but most include ingredients that you’d find in your pantry. While many will not be able to plate their dishes as impeccably as pictured, the recipes sure seem to taste as delicious as they look.

To enter the giveaway, leave a comment telling me about a simple recipe that you serve in a chic way! And if you don’t already follow me on facebook, like the BIB page here. Winner will be chosen at random at 11:00 PM Wednesday, December 5th. 

Warm Deep-Dish Giant Chocolate Chip Cookie Torte
excerpted from CHIC Made Simple: Fresh. Fast. Fabulous. Kosher Cooking By Esther Deutsch, Feldheim Publishers

Ingredients

2 cups oil
1 cup sugar
2 cups brown sugar
1 Tbsp. pure vanilla extract
4 eggs
4 cups all-purpose fl our
4 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 pkg. (10 oz.) chocolate chips
Store-bought vanilla ice cream

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350° F. In the bowl of a mixer, beat the oil, sugar, brown sugar, vanilla, eggs, flour, baking powder, and salt on medium speed until well combined, about 2–3 minutes. Add the chocolate chips and combine.

2. Pour the batter into two 9-inch round baking pans and bake, uncovered, for 55–60 minutes. Serve the torte warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on the side.

3. To reheat, warm the torte, tightly covered, in a preheated 200° F oven for no longer than 1 hour. Serves 16.

Note: This recipe yields two 9-inch round cakes. You can serve the second one as a breakfast cake.

1 year ago: black bean brownies
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Kani Salad


This kani salad recipe (courtesy of my cousin Chana, a great hostess!) converted me into a mock-crab fan. It’s that good. If you go back to this post, you can read in my own words how much I used to dislike those orange colored surimi sticks. I’d always pick them out of California sushi rolls. But not anymore. Does the idea of eating mock-crab freak you out too? Well then do yourself a favor and make this salad. Trust me, you’ll never look back!

I’m not the only one who’s gaga over this recipe. I had my friend Dina and her family over during the holidays, and I served this among the appetizers. I hadn’t known, but apparently Dina and her husband have sampled kani salad at just about every kosher restaurant in (and out of) town. They were excited to see how this recipe would measure up to their favorite. Not only did it measure up, it exceeded their expectations by far. In fact, they no longer order it at restaurants, they make it at home instead!

There’s just something about the stringy texture and spicy dressing that makes you want to eat it all up with chopsticks. And chopsticks are fun. So, if you’re looking for a colorful, spicy and delicious dish, give this kani salad a try!

Kani Salad

1 pkg mock crab surimi sticks, cut or pulled apart into thin strips
1 English cucumbers, jullienned (see tip)
1/3 cup mayo
3 tbsp rice vinegar
1-2 tbsp sriracha
2 tsp black sesame seeds, plus more for garnish
1/4 cup Rice Krispies or french fried onions

Method:

Add kani and cucumber to a bowl. In a separate bowl, combine mayo, rice vinegar, sriracha and sesame seeds. Pour dressing over kani salad and mix. Garnish with additional sesame seeds and Rice Krispies.

NOTE: Sriracha is an Asian hot sauce, typically made from chili peppers, vinegar, sugar and salt. I prefer my kani salad to be spicy so I use 2 tbsp.

TIP: The simplest method to julienne a cucumber is by using a julienne peeler. First, I cut the cucumber in half so that I can get shorter pieces (you don’t want your strips the entire length of the cucumber). Then, I peel the cucumber all around, once for the peel, and another time around the inside. I discard the rest. If you don’t have a julienne peeler, cut the cucumber lengthwise, and using a spoon or melon baller, scoop out the seeds. Cut the cucumber in half so that you have 2 u-shaped pieces. Place the cucumber face-down on the cutting board and cut lengthwise into thin slices. Keep the slices stacked and cut the stacks into thin strips.

VARIATION: If it’s too hard for you to cut the crab and cucumbers into sticks, you can dice them up instead.

1 year ago: pan seared tuna steak
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Thankgiving Turkey Roulade with 5-Minute Stuffing

When the “Kosher Connection” Team decided to feature stuffing for the November LinkUp, I was so excited to post this recipe! I also happen to be doing a Thanksgiving demo tonight, so the timing was perfect to develop this dish to perfection. I prefer to make individual turkey roulades using turkey cutlets, but you can also make one larger one using a turkey london broil (essentially a skinless, boneless turkey breast half) that’s been butterflied and pounded. The visual impact is enough to make everyone at the table ooh and ahh. And that’s before they’ve even tasted it.

Now I love a beautiful plate of food as much of the other person, but I don’t like to spend hours in the kitchen. To simplify this recipe, I decided not to sear the turkey breasts (this gives it a nice brown color all around) because that would require me to tie each one up with kitchen twine. Instead, I just rubbed them down with some paprika, garlic powder and olive oil, baked seam-side down in the pan. My 5-Minute (no-joke!) stuffing also keeps things simple, but you can easily stuff the roulades with any store-bought filling (even cold cuts, like in this recipe).

So, if you’re making thanksgiving for a small group, and a whole turkey seems too large for your crowd (or like me, you’re daunted by the thought of cooking the huge bird), give this beautiful and delicious recipe a try!

Gobble, gobble!

For more delicious Thanksgiving stuffing recipes, visit the Kosher Connection Linkup below. Happy Thanksgiving!

Turkey Roulade

1 pkg turkey cutlets
salt and pepper
5 minute stuffing (recipe below)
paprika
garlic powder
extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup chicken stock

Method:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Place turkey cutlets between two sheets of plastic wrap and pound with a mallet or rolling pin to even thickness. Remove plastic wrap and season with salt and pepper. Place a spoonful of stuffing on the turkey breast and spread out over cutlet, leaving a 1″ border all around. Starting from the shortest side, roll the turkey breast tightly and place seam-side down in a baking dish. Repeat with remaining cutlets (use a second baking dish, if needed). Sprinkle the roulades with paprika and garlic powder and drizzle with olive oil. Lightly rub in the spices. Pour 1/4 cup chicken stock into the bottom of the pan (repeat with 2nd pan, if you are using). Cover, and bake for 15-20 minutes (more for thicker cutlets). Uncover and bake for an additional 5 minutes.

Slice each roulade and serve over cranberry sauce. My mulled wine version works wonderfully with this recipe!

VARIATION: Instead of cutlets, you can make a larger roulade using a butterflied turkey breast (or turkey london broil). Pound out the breast to even thickness and continue as above. Bake for approximately 1 hour, until thermometer reaches 160 degrees.

One taste of this fantastic stuffing and you’d never imagine it took only 5 minutes to make! There are few tricks here! Firstly, instead of sauteing up onion and garlic, I just use onion and garlic flavored croutons! Nifty, right? Then, I add just a touch of poultry seasoning (a little goes a long way!) to give it that been-stuffed-into-a-bird-for-hours quality! Using frozen spinach not only eliminates work, it also adds a beautiful touch of green – so festive and autumnesque!

5-Minute Stuffing

1 10oz. box frozen chopped spinach, thawed
2 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper, to taste
2 cups chicken stock
1 5.25oz. bag onion & garlic flavored croutons
1/4 tsp poultry seasoning

Method:

Using gloves, squeeze out spinach to remove water. Heat up olive oil in a skillet and add spinach. Season with salt and pepper, and stir until heated through. Add chicken stock, stirring to incorporate, and heat through. Add the croutons and poultry seasoning and stir until croutons soften and soak up the chicken stock.

1 year ago: creamy pareve mashed potatoes

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Mulled Wine Cranberry Sauce


Some people seem to think that cranberry sauce it just for Thanksgiving, but I happen to enjoy it all cranberry season! There are so many variations to make, and so many ways to enjoy it. My favorite is mulled wine cranberry sauce.

It you’ve been following my blog for a while, you may remember this celebratory post from my one year blogoversary, featuring mulled wine. I decided to combine two of my favorite holiday foods – mulled wine and cranberries – to create this out of this world dish. I’m sure it will become your favorite too!

For the recipe, hop on over to my blogger friend Mara at KosherOnABudget. I’ve also included lots of ideas for enjoying cranberry sauce. If you love bargains and freebies, her site is jam-packed with amazing deals and discounts for all around the web!

1 year ago: hassleback sweet potatoes

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Kosherfest 2012 Top Ten

It’s been a whirlwind of a week! Melinda Strauss of Kitchen-Tested and Shelley Serber of The Kosher Home hosted the first Kosher Food Blogger Conference at the Carlton Hotel. It was great meeting so many people and learning so much from an expert lineup of speakers including Jamie Geller of JoyOfKosher, Noah Fecks, food photographer extraordinaire of thewayweate, Leah Schapira of CookKosher, Dani Klein of YeahThatsKosher, Joe Apfelbaum SEO expert and CEO of AjaxUnion, and many more! I also attended the 2nd annual KosherFeast Social Media Dinner at Abigaels restaurant, hosted by the wonderful ladies Lois Held and Roberta Scher of KosherEye and the SweetUp Team, Esti Berkowitz of PrimeTimeParenting and Abbey Wolin of Not2Shabbey.

Of course, there was also a little something called KosherFest, where I was lucky enough to sample many of the new (and old) kosher products on the market! I’m so excited to show you some of my faves!

Did any of you visit KosherFest? I’d love to hear about some of the products that you sampled and enjoyed!

1. Sweet Loren’s Ready-To-Bake Frozen Dark Double Fudge Brownie
One taste of these delicious nondairy, wholegrain, natural brownie bars and you’d never imagine they were made from freezer batter. The batter comes in the pan so all you have to do is stick it in the oven. Sweet Loren’s makes lots of other ready to bake desserts as well. SweetLorens.comUPDATE 1/2/13: Although this product is dairy free, it is made on dairy equipment and is actually OUD.

2. Gelato Petrini
This handmade, low fat, gluten free gelato was my favorite of the whole day. The family-owned company is based in Delray Beach, FL, but they plan on distributing to New York locations soon. In the meantime, their fig & honey gelato and lychee sorbetti are good enough to travel for! GelatoPetrini.com

3. Rimon Freeze-Dried Yogi Drops
Freeze-dried yogurt drops have never been seen on the kosher, cholov-yisroel market. I’m really excited about these delicious pop-in-your-mouth healthy treats that are great for kids and adults alike. Many delicious flavors, and more, coming soon to your kosher supermarket.

4. Mediterranean Chef Hummus+
Besides for the fact that the people at this booth were so nice and generous, their hummus speaks for itself. They had a range of delicious flavors, but their pesto variation really stood out. It was one of the best hummus’s I’ve ever tasted! MonteCarlo-Salads.com

5. SideEffect Alcoholic Cider
I’ma huge fan of apple cider, so this alcoholic variety really got me excited. The only thing in this smooth and delicious drink is apple juice and because it’s made purely from apples, it is also kosher for passover!

6. Roland Cooked Baby Beets
If you follow my blog, you know just how much I love beets – and not the canned variety. These steamed and peeled baby beets are vacuum packed and ready to eat. I always see it at Trader Joes, but there was nothing like it on the kosher market until now! RolandFood.com

7. Manischewitz Chocolate Hazelnut Spread
If you only eat cholov-yisroel like me, you probably drool over all the nutella desserts you see on pinterest. Finally, there is a chocolate hazelnut spread that is pareve, AND it’s kosher for passover! It’s out of this world delicious. Now I know what I’ve been missing all this time! Manischewitz.com

8. Finchi’s Desserts
Finchi’s desserts makes the most delicious chocolate mousse (and brownies) that are gluten, nut and dairy free. They also have a sugar free variety that rivals any mousse you’ve ever tasted. Finchis.com

9. Zelda’s Cinnamon Chocolate Popcorn
I’ve long been a fan of Zelda’s gourmet confections, but this cinnamon chocolate popcorn just hits the spot. That stuff is seriously dangerous, I can eat an entire tub in one sitting. Also available in many other flavors including jalapeno, sparkling candy cane and blue Hannukkah! ZeldasSweetShoppe.com

10. Torie & Howard Organic Hard Candy
Not only is this organic candy unbelievably mouth-puckering delicious, they have the most beautiful packaging I have ever seen! I aslo love that they don’t use artificial food coloring. Their four original flavors include pomegranate & nectarine, pink grapefruit & tupelo honey, blood orange & honey and d’angou pear & cinnamon (my favorite!) TorieAndHoward.com

1 year ago: Kosherfest 2011 Top Ten

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